Apple Altai Phoenix

A winter variety developed at the Siberian Institute of Horticulture named after M. A. Lisavenko, selected among seedlings from open pollination of the Belfler-Phoenix variety. Breeders: M. A. Lisavenko, L. Y. Zhebrovskaya, I. P. Kalinina, N. V. Ermakova. Widely grown in the Altai Krai, especially in foothills and mountainous areas. Approved since 1974 for the West Siberian region.

Trees are medium-sized with spherical crowns, formed by a few skeletal branches emerging from the trunk at right angles, with numerous whorls and fruiting spurs, where the main yield is formed.

Shoots are thick, dark brown, hairy. Leaves are green with a matte sheen, egg-shaped with a small tip, with slightly serrated pinkish edges, folded like a boat along the central vein. Leaf petioles emerge from the shoots at an acute angle, hairy, with small needle-like and lanceolate stipules.

Fruits are medium to slightly smaller (72-134 g), flattened-round, sometimes with a large, blurred ribbed texture, light yellow with a slight blurred light-red blush on the sun-facing side. Surface is smooth. Peduncle is medium length, hairy. Calyx is wide with a radiating rusty color. Calyx is medium-sized, closed, subcalyx tube is medium, funnel-shaped. Axial cavity is narrow. Seed chambers are closed. Dish is deep and ribbed.

Flesh is white, fine-grained, juicy, tart-sweet, good taste. Chemical composition of fruits: total sugars — 10.7% (7.2-16), titratable acids — 0.97% (0.68-1.31), tannins — 83 mg/100g (46-116), ascorbic acid — 16.7 mg/100g (6.1-25.8), P-active compounds — 123 mg/100g (83-163), pectic substances — 4.15% on dry weight.

Fruits ripen in the first half of September and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 120 days. Valued by Siberians for relatively large fruits for Siberia, easy-to-handle, good-tasting fruits of universal use.

Fruit production begins on the fourth to fifth year. Yield is high but irregular. Winter hardiness is moderate. In exceptionally severe winters, trees suffer moderate frost damage, sensitive to scab.

Advantages of the variety: high yield, high commercial and consumer quality of fruits.

Disadvantages of the variety: moderate frost damage in exceptionally severe winters, sensitive to scab in wet years.

The variety is used in breeding. At the NIISS, with its involvement, the variety Altynay and numerous elite forms (candidates for varieties) with high resistance to scab and fairly large, good-tasting fruits have been developed.